One of the biggest challenges in cell biology, as well as in neuroscience, is being able to do parallel analysis on multiple individual cells. This stems from the fact that most of the current cellular analysis tools and methods are not chemically sensitive enough for or physically capable of obtaining measurements from single cells. They also are not suitable (e.g. too bulky) to be implemented into automated systems for parallel analysis and require relatively extensive human labor. Furthermore, cell-based assays are becoming an essential step in high-throughput screening (HTS)-based drug discovery processes, increasing the demand for ever faster cell analysis tools. One solution of this problem is miniaturization of the cell analysis tools and methods using the state-of-the-art micro- and nanofabrication techniques. The device presented here is cheaper and more scalable than the conventional devices and has much higher throughput. It can be automated and do parallel analysis on multiple cells simultaneously. In addition, it requires much less expertise and operator time. Because of its flexible design, it can be used for a diverse range of applications such as parallel patch-clamping, precision delivery of biochemical factors to cells, high-throughput screening for drug discovery, immunoisolation of cells, cellular and biomolecular separation, and protein and DNA sequencing.